Last night I got back into the swing of things after a lot of eating out with some dumplings and pot stickers (from what I can tell fried dumplings). They were pretty easy but take foreevvveeeerrrrr to roll out all of the little dumpling shells and then wrap them up, so definitely plan ahead. I had them with some Sweet Thai Chili sauce which I fell in love with in Australia, and some soy sauce. The filling was really good with a nice amount of ginger to add some flavor to the pork. My onion slices were a little large, so in the future I’ll mince them up better, I don’t think they’re supposed to be noticeable.
Another issue I had was that with the dumplings the skins (thats what I’m going to call them) got really loose, like what I imagine a fat guy after liposuction is like, and all the filling just fell out after I took my first bite. I guess a remedy would be to make little dumplings so they go down in one bite. I was also a lot of concerned that the pork wouldn’t be cooked all the way with these little cooking times but rest assured they are just fine.
I also had quite the adventure trying to mix the dough classical style on the counter with no bowl. It is way more difficult than it looks to not break the crater. Also, water and flour don’t come off counter tops so easily.
Dumplings and Pot Stickers
Pork Filling
1 lb ground pork
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 onion, minced
1 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs Mirin
1 1/2 Tbs grated ginger
2 tsp sesame oil
Shells
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cold water
1. Mix all the filling stuff together, refrigerate 20 minutes.
2. Mix it in a bowl. It should not be sticky and bounce back when you press on it. Sprinkle with flour and cover with a towel and let sit 30 minutes.
3. Cut into 36 even pieces and roll those out into 5 in diameter circles. This is going to take forever so you should cover all the dough you’re not immediately working with so it doesn’t dry out, especially after being rolled.
4. Fill the circles with a teaspoon of stuffing, fold in half and seal shut.
Dumplings – Bring a ton of water to boil, drop in dumplings one at a time so they don’t stick to each other and cook 3-5 minutes
Pot Stickers – Bring some sesame oil up to medium high heat. Add pot stickers and cook 2-3 minutes until bottoms are brown. Add enough water to cover 1/3 way up the pot stickers, cover and cook 3 minutes or so.
